The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning by Henry Mintzberg
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Book Reviews of The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning
Book Review: The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning
Summary: 5 Stars
Strategic Planning came on the scene in the mid-1960s and was embraced by organizations as the most effective way to draw up and implement strategies. However, it fell from the pedestal it once occupied. According to Mintzberg, this fall was due to confusing strategic planning with strategic thinking. Planning is concerned with analysis, which entails breaking down goals into steps and formalizing the steps to enable implementation. Strategic thinking, on the other hand, is about synthesis which involves intuition and creativity, the outcome of which is an integrated perspective of an organization and an articulated vision of direction the firm should take.
Mintzberg argues that strategic planning is rooted in a grand fallacy that analysis encompasses synthesis, therefore strategic planning is strategic thinking. He states that this grand fallacy arise from three fallacious assumptions namely that prediction is possible, that strategy formulation can be separated from implementation and that strategy making can be formalized. The result, according to Mintzberg has been disappointing corporate performance and hence the decline in managers faith in strategic planning.
Mintzberg is right that "we think in order to act, but we also act in order to think". We experiment with things and we take what works and these "converge gradually into viable patterns that become strategies". According to Mintzberg, this is the essence of strategy making as a learning process.
This article is very interesting and is in contrast to some views of another strategic planning guru, Michael Porter, who favour analytical techniques for developing strategy. Having read the article, I recommend that one reads the book by the same author "The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Free Press, 1994" for a more in depth look into this subject.
Book Review: An excellent primer for strategic design
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book a few years ago when I was new to strategic planning and particularly enjoyed how it deconstructed the assumptions of strategic planning and encouraged strategic design and systems thinking. I can't help but think that the past few years of business misteps and unfortunate mergers have only added value to this work.